Plus-Size Clothes for Kids: Hot Opportunity

In the world of entrepreneurship, one of the age-old tenets for startup success is “find a niche and fill it.” Well, children’s plus-size clothes is one of those unfilled niches, that is almost begging to be filled.

According to research from Mintel, a global research firm, 15% of parents with children under the age of 12 admit to “struggling” when looking for and buying clothes for their kids.

In fact, consumers have a lot of complaints about shopping for plus-size kids’ clothes. So, if you’re interesting in starting a business in this niche, whether online or a brick-and-mortar store, you’d be smart to focus on the concerns of these parents. They’re essentially telling you what they want. If you already own a store (or website) selling these products, make sure you’re not guilty of committing these mistakes.

Opening a store selling plus-size clothes

Many parents complain about the salespeople selling plus-sized kid clothes. Specifically, 17% of parents say the sales personnel in these stores are “unfriendly and not helpful”. What’s more, 15% have “unpleasant” dressing room experiences, or shop in places that don’t even have dressing rooms.

Other complaints:

34% of parents say there’s a “poor selection of clothing” in their child’s size.

30% complain the merchandise lacks variety.

30% say the clothing is overpriced.

Children’s apparel market

Beyond plus sizes, the children’s apparel industry is a huge market. Mintel says overall revenues for children’s apparel is more than $45 billion and should grow to $47.2 billion by 2020. Most of the clothing sold is for girls (47%), followed by boys (32%) and infants and toddlers (20%). Infant clothing is experiencing the most growth (up 5.7% from 2013 to 2015—the last year we have statistics for) and Mintel projects that will increase as birth rates will likely continue to climb.

Sales channels

For entrepreneurs interested in pursuing a storefront opportunity, Mintel says you’ll have an advantage if you’re located in an urban area, where the problem is more prevalent. It’s obviously easier to connect with customers if you’re in the neighborhood.

Whether plus size or not, a popular alternative to buying new clothes for kids, particularly for millennial parents and those living in urban markets, is shopping at consignment and resale stores. Mintel reports 23% of all parents and 28% of millennial parents currently shop at these types of stores.

Another alternative, and one that’s really attractive for startups is building a website. You can open an online store selling gently used clothes for kids of all sizes, a websites just selling kids clothes in general, or one that focuses on selling plus-size clothes for kids.

If your idea is to sell new plus-size clothes, it can sometimes be hard to source products. Of course, you can find merchandise on Alibaba.com. If the listing doesn’t specifically say plus-size, don’t hesitate to ask the supplier if they can manufacture those sizes.

Rieva Lesonsky is CEO of GrowBiz Media, a media and custom content company focusing on small business and entrepreneurship. Email Rieva at rieva@smallbizdaily.com, follow her on Google+ andTwitter.com/Rieva, and visit her website, SmallBizDaily.com, to get the scoop on business trends and sign up for Rieva’s free TrendCast reports.